1,756,072 research outputs found
Scandinavian and European Community enlargement Prospects and problems for Sweden, Finland and Norway
No full textBased on a paper presented at 3rd Biennial International Conference of European Community Studies Assoc. held Washington (US),27-29 May 1993Available from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:q93/21140 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreSIGLEGBUnited Kingdo
The distribution of total and specific serum IgE in the European Community Respiratory Health Survey
No full textBACKGROUND: Variations in the prevalence of atopy could provide important clues to the etiology of atopy and asthma. Although estimates of prevalence are available from different studies, a lack of standardization makes comparisons difficult. OBJECTIVE: This study was conducted to estimate the variation of geometric mean levels of serum IgE and the prevalence of specific IgE to common allergens between populations as part of the European Community Respiratory Health Survey (ECRHS), a multicenter survey of asthma and risk factors for asthma. METHODS: Random samples of subjects living in 37 centers in 16 countries who had answered a questionnaire about their respiratory symptoms were invited for further assessment including total serum IgE and the presence of specific IgE against house dust mite (Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus), timothy grass, cat, Cladosporium herbarum, and a local allergen. Sera were tested from 13,883 persons. RESULTS: The estimated prevalence of atopy, defined as the presence of at least one positive specific IgE, ranged from 16% in Albacete (Spain) to 45% in Christchurch (New Zealand). The geometric mean total serum IgE varied from 13 kU/L in Reykjavik (Iceland) to 62 kU/L in Bordeaux (France). There was no relation between the geometric mean total serum IgE in a center and the prevalence of atopy. CONCLUSIONS: There are substantial variations in the prevalence of atopy and the level of serum IgE. These variations are independent of each other and likely to be largely environmental in origi
Inhalation incidents and respiratory health: results from the European Community Respiratory Health Survey.
No full textBackground Inhalation incidents are an important cause of acute respiratory symptoms,
but little is known about how these incidents affect chronic respiratory health.
Methods We assessed reported inhalation incidents among 3,763 European Community
Respiratory Health Survey (ECRHS) participants with and without cough, phlegm,
asthma, wheezing or bronchial hyperresponsiveness. We then examined whether
inhalation incidents during the 9-year ECRHS follow-up period were associated with a
new onset of any of these respiratory outcomes among 2,809 participants who were free of
all five outcomes at the time of the baseline ECRHS survey.
Results Inhalation incidents were reported by 5% of participants, with higher
percentages reported among individuals with asthma-related outcomes at the time of the
baseline survey. Among participants without symptoms at baseline, our analyses generated
non-statistically significant elevated estimates of the risk of cough, phlegm, asthma and
wheezing and a non-statistically significant inverse estimate of the risk of bronchial
hyperresponsiveness among participants who reported an inhalation incident compared to
those without such an event reported.
Discussion Our findings provide limited evidence of an association between inhalation
incidents and asthma-related symptoms. These data could be affected by differences in the
reporting of inhalation incidents according to symptom status at the time of the baseline
survey; they should thus be interpreted with caution
The application of international economic sanctions: the united nations, European community and 'Yugoslavia'
Full text linkThe thesis is concerned with the international mechanism for the imposition and implementation of economic sanctions and the role of the European Community within it. Chapter 1 examines the classification of responses available to States to violations of international obligations. It deals with the conditions which must be satisfied for the legitimate introduction of counter-measures by States, restrictions placed upon their exercise, and their relationship to the law of treaties. Finally it is concerned with the conditions which must be met to enable the Security Council of the United Nations to impose sanctions against a State, and with the obligations which stem from such measures on Members of the UN. The relationship of the European Community to the UN Security Council is discussed in the second Chapter. The questions of whether the EC needs to seek authorisation from the Security Council to introduce sanctions and whether it is bound by the tatter's resolutions are considered. The power of the EC to apply counter-measures in defence of its own interests and of those of its Member States is examined. Chapter 3 is concerned with the basis in European Community law for the EC to apply counter-measures and to implement UN sanctions. This involves a discussion of the respective competences of the Community and its Member States in the field of external relations to determine in which of them is competent to take particular measures. Chapter 4 consists of a chronological account of the sanctions introduced by the United Nations and the European Community against Serbia and Montenegro and of the events which led to their adoption
The United States and the European Community (1969-1974): Economic and Political Disputes
Full text linkThis paper aims to examine the economic and political disputes between the United States and the European Community between 1969 and 1974. Utilising the documentary research approach, the paper will first explore the main economic disputes which were manifested in two rounds of the United States-European Community Consultation in 1970 and 1972. Then, it will investigate the divergence between the United States and the European Community in their policy stances on energy and the 1973 Arab-Israeli War which together constituted the major political disputes between the two sides. With these economic and political disputes, the years 1969-1974 witnessed a difficult phase of the United States-the European Community relations
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
"Obedient Servant or Runaway Eurocracy? Delegation, Agency, and Agenda Setting in the European Community"
Full text linkDo supranational institutions matter - do they deserve the status of an independent causal variable - in EC policymaking? Does the Commission matter? Does the European Court of Justice? Does the European Parliament? Is the European Community characterized by continued member state dominance, or by a runaway Commission and an activist Court progressively chipping away at this dominance? These are some of the most important questions for our understanding of the European Community and of European integration, and have divided the two traditional schools of thought in regional integration, with neofunctionalists [Haas 1958; Lindberg & Scheingold 1970] generally asserting, and intergovernmentalists [Hoffmann 1966; Taylor 1983; Moravcsik 1991, 1993] generally denying, any important causal role for supranational institutions in the integration process. By and large, however, neither neofunctionalism nor intergovernmentalism1 has generated testable hypotheses regarding the conditions under which, and the ways in which, supranational institutions exert an independent causal influence on either EC governance or the process of European integration. This paper presents a unified theoretical approach to the problem of supranational influence, based largely on the new institutionalism in rational choice theory. Simplifying only slightly, this new literature can be traced to Shepsle's [1979] pioneering work on the role of institutions in the US Congress. Beginning with the observation by McKelvey [1976], Riker [1980] and others that, in a system of majoritarian decisionmaking, policy choices are inherently unstable, "cycling" among multiple possible equilibria, Shepsle argued that Congressional institutions, and in particular the committee system, could produce structure-induced equilibrium, by ruling some policy alternatives as permissible or impermissible, and by structuring the voting and veto power of the various actors in the decisionmaking process
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